50.000 ¼ audio tapes digitised

In Q3 2016, Picturae finished the digitisation of 50.000 ¼ inch audio tapes for the SONUMA in Belgium. For Picturae's first large scale ¼ audio tape project we provided a solution taken into account all project specific demands. We are very proud to have been able to conduct such an important project for the SONUMA.

Project

After a public procurement procedure SONUMA granted the project to digitise 45.000 ¼ inch audiotapes. An additional 5.000 were digitized once the first batch was finished. The prestigious collection of audiotapes includes recordings of classical concerts, news broadcasts and interviews of major importance to the heritage of French-speaking Belgium. The collection lasts over 30.000 hours in total. To digitize such a large collection Picturae set up a ¼ inch audio studio and maximized the efficiency in handling the tapes to ensure the project could be finished in a short period of time. For almost 20 months we delivered content corresponding to 2.500 tapes to the SONUMA following a strict planning.

SONUMA

Due to the deterioration of the physical condition of the audiovisual heritage in Belgium and the rapidly decreasing availability of working playback equipment, the Belgian Radio and Television Broadcasters for the French Community, Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) and the Fédération Wallonie – Bruxelles, decided to create SONUMA, and to allocate them a budget of 40 million euros. SONUMA (SOciété de NUMérisation et de valorisation des Archives audiovisuelles) is committed to the conservation, preservation, digitisation and marketing of audiovisual heritage.

The ¼ audio studio is currently being used to digitize a collection for the SWR, a German broadcaster.